Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what advice his Department gives to employers on supporting employees who return to work after a period of mental illness.

Alistair Burt

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on workplace health management practices. This guidance provides evidence based recommendations on improving the health and wellbeing of employees, and can support organisations to develop effective return to work policies. The guidance is complemented by earlier guidance published by NICE on promoting mental wellbeing at work.

Additionally, guidance on the NHS Choices website provides advice for line managers on supporting employees with long-term medical conditions, including those with mental health conditions. This can be found at the following link:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/workplacehealth/Documents/ChronicConds_LineManagers_Factsheet_A4.pdf

Public Health England is working with Business in the Community on a new resource for businesses focused specifically on addressing mental health issues building on the existing best practice and considering the transferable learning between business sectors and businesses of different sizes.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of proposed changes to housing benefit on tenants in supported housing and their access to mental health services.

Alistair Burt

Shortly, we will be engaging colleagues across Government on the proposed changes to housing benefit. As the cross-Government lead, the Department for Work and Pensions is coordinating any work to understand the likely impact of the reforms.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the reference in the Prime Minister’s speech on life chances of 11 January 2016 to health liaison psychiatry services in A&E departments includes provision for paediatric mental health liaison psychiatry services in A&E departments.

Alistair Burt

Yes. The Secretary of State’s speech of 11 January does include these provisions, as new investment will apply to all age groups.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of in which type of healthcare there is greatest geographical disparity of treatment (a) availability, (b) choice and (c) outcomes across England.

Jane Ellison

No such assessment has been made. However, the Right Care programme actively uses variation between clinical commissioning groups to help identify those diseases or conditions that have the potential for greatest improvement. Indicators used include prevalence, treatment and outcomes.

The NHS Atlas of Variation, Commissioning for Value Packs and indicators in the National Health Service Outcomes Framework and Public Health Outcomes Framework provide publicly accessible resources to compare geographical areas and highlight health inequalities and other variation across a wide variety of indicators.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendations on employment support and the housing benefit cap on page 81 of the Mental Health Taskforce report, published in February 2016; and what steps he plans to take to implement those recommendations.

Justin Tomlinson

We welcome the Mental Health Taskforce Report, which sets out how important employment can be in supporting people with mental health conditions, and how to improve current services. We have already gone some way to implementing the recommendation on employment and are improving support by developing a new Work and Health programme, which will be providing employment support to claimants with a health condition or disability and the very long term unemployed. We are investing £43 million in a range of trials to develop our evidence base on what works for those with mental health conditions; and investing in increasing employment support in therapy services. The Prime Minister also recently announced over £50m investment to more than double the number of employment advisors in IAPT services, so that they are linked in to every talking therapy service in the country.

We will publish a White Paper later this year that will set out reforms to improve support for people with health conditions and disabilities, including exploring the roles of employers, to further reduce the disability employment gap and promote integration across health and employment.

We work closely with the supported housing sector to ensure they are supported as effectively as possible, and highly value the work they do. As part of this we have commissioned an evidence review of supported housing. The results of this research will determine our future policy development and any appropriate exemptions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) young people moving from CAMHS to adult services are supported and (b) there is a comprehensive transition plan for each such person.

Alistair Burt

The ambitious national programme of work as set out in Future in mind will see a system-wide transformation in children and young people’s mental health. This is specified in the Government’s Mandate to NHS England.

In taking this forward, NHS England has asked all clinical commissioning groups, working closely with their partners, to develop Local Transformation Plans to transform their local offer for mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people. These Plans must address the full spectrum of mental health: from prevention and resilience building, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services, including moving from children to adult mental health services.

It is the responsibility of local providers to ensure an appropriate transition plan is in place for each individual that requires one. In 2015, NHS England published a non-mandatory service specification for transitions from child and adolescent mental health services. The aim of this sample specification is to support commissioners responsible for funding transitional services for adolescents with mental health problems. A copy of the guidance can be found at the following webpage:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mod-transt-camhs-spec.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what safeguards his Department has in place to ensure that people with mental health problems who are unable to attend a work capability assessment or report to the jobcentre when requested due to their mental health problems do not have their benefits sanctioned as a result.

Priti Patel

Claimants with mental health conditions are considered “vulnerable”, therefore if they failed to attend a Work Capability Assessment, attempts will be made to contact them by telephone and, if appropriate, to arrange a “safeguarding home visit” before a decision on entitlement is made.

The Jobcentre Plus sanctions regime has a range of safeguards for vulnerable claimants, including ensuring all requirements are reasonable and taking into account individual capability and circumstances, such as mental health conditions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of schools employ a mental health specialist as a permanent member of staff.

Mr Sam Gyimah

This is a matter for schools to decide. We have recently commissioned an extensive survey which will provide nationally representative estimates of what provision schools and colleges offer for mental health and character education. The fieldwork will begin in the summer term.

We are also contributing to a £3 million joint pilot with NHS England for training single points of contact in schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist support where needed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of mental health trusts (a) offer female patients a choice of a female care coordinator, (b) conduct routine enquiries with female patients about experiences of abuse and violence and (c) provide gender-sensitive care.

Alistair Burt

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to implement recommendation 12 in the executive summary of Public Health England’s March 2015 report entitled, Public mental health leadership and workforce development framework, on supporting increased access to a range of mental health promotion training for frontline public health practitioners.

Alistair Burt

Public Health England (PHE) has been collating practice examples of mental health promotion training available for frontline public health practitioners. Information will help inform the commissioning of training locally. PHE is working with the Royal Society for Public Health and other partners to identify gaps in mental health promotion training provision and opportunities to fill these gaps, such as developing e-learning training modules.

At a local level, PHE centres are working with Health Education England (HEE) colleagues to identify and co-ordinate provision of training to practitioners and identify needs and training opportunities.

PHE contributed to the Mental Health Task Force report and has integrated the priority of increasing the training within the Taskforce’s recommendations. Work will be led by HEE, supported by PHE.